Page 45 - The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million - PDFDrive.com

experience selling to your target buyer.

What do you think? Who is your first hire?

Well, of course, there are pros and cons associated with each of the four
candidates. I have laid out my perspective below, starting with my least favorite
hire and ending with my favorite hire.

The SVP of sales (candidate 1) is my least favorite hire. Nonetheless, start-up
founders are typically fixated on finding someone like the SVP of sales for their
first sales hire.

Here are the pros of the SVP of sales:

Rolodex. The SVP of sales is likely well connected at the executive level
with the types of customers you want to attract. Those connections could be
an enormous advantage. In fact, if you have a small addressable market with
only a handful of target buyers (e.g., the top 10 telecom companies in the
country), the SVP of sales becomes a lot more interesting as an early hire.
However, I believe industry connections are overrated in most sales hiring
contexts these days. Are there really still a lot of deals being done on golf
courses and at ball games? Not really. Strength of network is an easy
dimension to screen a candidate on. Many people lean into the characteristic
heavily, but for the reasons I mentioned, I believe it is overrated.

Industry knowledge. The SVP of sales likely has great instincts around your
buyer context, especially from an executive's strategic perspective. He has
great instincts about the optimal go-to-market strategy, sales methodology,
value proposition, and so forth that will work for the buyer you are targeting.
Similar to his Rolodex, his industry experience is an easy attribute to assess
but is overrated in the sales hiring process.

Here are the cons of the SVP of sales:

Hesitancy to roll up his sleeves. I have seen so many start-ups hire someone
like the SVP of sales, and upon arriving, his first question is, “Where is my
assistant?” The SVP of sales has spent the last decade learning to delegate.
Unwinding these instincts and asking him to roll up his sleeves will be no
small feat.

Lack of recent front line experience. The SVP of sales probably hasn't
directly sold a deal in years, maybe even a decade. Your first hire needs to be
out in the trenches, talking directly to potential customers as often as
possible.